2025/26 David Moyes


Rita_Poon said:
His honesty is refreshing, also doesn't labour with a 'woe is me attitude', don't like the crap interviewer, about as assertive as a wet kleenex.
Also, woke up second half at anfield, tried our hardest to crap the bed second half vs wolves, should have been buried 3 or 4 nil to brighton after that first half. I can't think of anything to explain it, we're a quarter of the season in, so fitness has to be something like, we can't be carrying that many knocks or injuries, is it flu or covid? are they going out boozing the night before a game?
I keep finding my way back to the loss of Doucoure, did he set the tone, all the running all the hustle? Was he the standard bearer that the rest of the side looked to to lead the charge? It's not magic, there's got to be a reason.
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Doucoure is definitely missed.

But we have to move on now and find a solution.

Our midfield two aren’t good enough to control games as a two, we need either two new midfielders or you need a third in there with them, like Doucoure used to make.

The thing Doucoure gave was a rating of 7 as part of a midfield 3, a rating of 6 as a 10 and a rating of 10 in how he enabled the system. He was very influential, if you cared to see and understand it. It’s evident now he’s gone.

For sure he’s missed, but we have to find a solution. If it’s me I’m dropping KDH and playing Rohl in a 4-3-3. Get control of games first, then trigger your quality.
 
Neiler said:
Doucoure is definitely missed.

But we have to move on now and find a solution.

Our midfield two aren’t good enough two control games as a two, we need either two new midfielders or you need a third I there with them.

The thing Doucoure gave was a rating of 7 as part of a midfield 3, a rating of 6 at 10 and a rating of 10 of how enabled the system.

For sure he’s missed, but we have to find a solution. If it’s me I’m dropping KDH and playing Rohl in a 4-3-3.
Click to expand...
you've bamboozled me with the numbers, good style!
I don't like it but it's Gana for me, KDH with Rohl and Garner to RB. That means we've got Alcaraz or Tim Iroegbunam for the advanced midfield spot, one offers a bit of football subtlety and the other is the battering ram player the side clearly misses the comfort blanket of.
Oh, and for the record, N'Diaye was kicked a couple of times last night and sides are waking up to booting him and Grealish out of games. Who's doling out the vengeance for us?
 
MikeH72 said:
Incredible how no serious football club was bothered about picking him up on a free in that case. He was a key figure in a team that battled relegation for 4 years, after previously being relegated with his former club.
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No side had the requirement for exactly what he provided, but he was made into that player by the system he suited here. I'm all for change, I'm all for progress, merely pointing out that the side still seems keen on playing to that type of players strengths even though he isn't here any more.
 

Neiler said:
Doucoure is definitely missed.

But we have to move on now and find a solution.

Our midfield two aren’t good enough to control games as a two, we need either two new midfielders or you need a third in there with them, like Doucoure used to make.

The thing Doucoure gave was a rating of 7 as part of a midfield 3, a rating of 6 as a 10 and a rating of 10 in how he enabled the system. He was very influential, if you cared to see and understand it. It’s evident now he’s gone.

For sure he’s missed, but we have to find a solution. If it’s me I’m dropping KDH and playing Rohl in a 4-3-3. Get control of games first, then trigger your quality.
Click to expand...
Yes we’ve definitely missed his 4 goals and 1 assist in his last 50
Games in the 10 role
 
Rita_Poon said:
you've bamboozled me with the numbers, good style!
I don't like it but it's Gana for me, KDH with Rohl and Garner to RB. That means we've got Alcaraz or Tim Iroegbunam for the advanced midfield spot, one offers a bit of football subtlety and the other is the battering ram player the side clearly misses the comfort blanket of.
Oh, and for the record, N'Diaye was kicked a couple of times last night and sides are waking up to booting him and Grealish out of games. Who's doling out the vengeance for us?
Click to expand...

You know I also think we miss Mangala from
The first half of last season too, that calm controlling presence and link between the back line and midfield.

If it was me id keep Idrissa, Rohl comes in and either Gamer goes to full back - because Jake has been found out - or Jake stays and we play Idrissa, Rohl and Garner in the middle.

KDH I think just doesn’t do enough pressing or physically for me in the engine room, fine if your bossing the game - but we are loosing the midfield battle most weeks. He reminds me a bit of Osman in there to be honest.

First step for me at this moment of time - is get back to winning the midfield battles and KDH is the one to come out for Rohl, just right now in my opinion.
 
Neiler said:
Doucoure is definitely missed.

But we have to move on now and find a solution.

Our midfield two aren’t good enough to control games as a two, we need either two new midfielders or you need a third in there with them, like Doucoure used to make.

The thing Doucoure gave was a rating of 7 as part of a midfield 3, a rating of 6 as a 10 and a rating of 10 in how he enabled the system. He was very influential, if you cared to see and understand it. It’s evident now he’s gone.

For sure he’s missed, but we have to find a solution. If it’s me I’m dropping KDH and playing Rohl in a 4-3-3. Get control of games first, then trigger your quality.
Click to expand...

We have to go to 433. We don’t have the midfielders who can play in a 2, and no player apart from Alcaraz who can play the 10 properly.
 
Rita_Poon said:
His honesty is refreshing, also doesn't labour with a 'woe is me attitude', don't like the crap interviewer, about as assertive as a wet kleenex.
Also, woke up second half at anfield, tried our hardest to crap the bed second half vs wolves, should have been buried 3 or 4 nil to brighton after that first half. I can't think of anything to explain it, we're a quarter of the season in, so fitness has to be something like, we can't be carrying that many knocks or injuries, is it flu or covid? are they going out boozing the night before a game?
I keep finding my way back to the loss of Doucoure, did he set the tone, all the running all the hustle? Was he the standard bearer that the rest of the side looked to to lead the charge? It's not magic, there's got to be a reason.
Click to expand...
The fact that in our team players are aging maybe is why we shine only in glimpses in our performances the first 25 minutes last night we were very very good & deserved to take the lead abet with a very special goal - plus any no 9 should have scored that close in tap in - to make it 2-0 -

2nd half we had one shot on target & to fetch Dwight McNeil on was a very poor decision - plus the Beto substitution was also puzzling ?

I looked at Barry miss again DH did complicate the situation by getting a flick on with his head close to Barry - Barry could have kneed that ball into the net - absolutely a glaring miss - in a first half where Barry looked an OK target CF -

The we had DMs Half time team talk - which was undone in 90 seconds - fortunate or not it was made by a CH out of form stood in front of Pickford who had the shot covered -

1-1 - DM stated he would have like all 3 points - but overall he was happy with a point as Sunderland's home form is very good -

You could not argue with that - but again it was a case of us only playing well in patches ..... we hit the post missed a glaring sitter so I feel it was two points dropped ..... we have to finish teams off when we are on top ....
 

Rita_Poon said:
what did Sunderland alter to gain that upper hand? Moyes alluded to the Barry miss knocking the wind out of our sails, we don't seem to be able to concentrate, this mental fatigue throughout the side is becoming more prominent because we sort of just give up, and then collectively look to Grealish and N'diaye to carry the battle solely. It's so weird.

Takes me back to the game at Goodison vs city in the first leg semi I think, we huffed and puffed and eventually got the lead, and we were so drained by the achievement that they couldn't score to equalise fast enough because we were effectively startled and on the ropes completely defenseless.

It's almost like suffering a concussion, the collective mind seems to go blank and the side becomes helpless. Can't place it, it's not that it's bad play, it's not that it's a lack of quality, it's something I can't quite pin down as I can't remember encountering it - especially not with the regularity we are seeing now. To draw a parallel with another sport, cyclists at the tour, blitz one another up the mountains of France, eventually a few end up cracking and cannot continue the fight up the slopes - their will is broken and they accept defeat. What I'm seeing in our team is a collective surrender. Am I hallucinating or dreaming up reality? Has anyone else noticed the 'switch off'?
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I couldn't give you an in depth breakdown of their tactics because I just watched the game on TV with my focus on us and I haven't gone back and looked at all the relevant stats and details. Instinctively it felt like they just upped their intensity a bit, started pressing better and getting more of a grip in the midfield. We went from finding it easy to get into the final third to not being able to. It doesn't really matter what they did to gain the upper hand though, the point is just that they did it and we didn't get it back.

I think the Barry miss is just an easy delineation point because we'd started well and that was the last shot we had for a long time, but I'm not sure that it's as simple as it being that moment exactly that things changed. To some extent, every game is going to go through ebbs and flows, it would be a very naive fan who was watching the first half hour last thinking the entire game was going to carry on in that vein and we were going to have 50 shots to their 0, in hindsight it's easy for us to look at individual moments and attach huge importance to them but I'm not sure that's always how it works.

I think sometimes people talk about consistency as if it's some mad inexplicable thing that nobody can quite understand but at it's most basic level it's just a reflection of how good you actually are. We're not very good, and so we seem inconsistent. We have some good players and so can have good spells in matches, but we lack certain things (physicality and players who are comfortable on the ball under pressure) and so we struggle to properly impose ourselves on games for long periods.
 
blueboy72 said:
Yes we’ve definitely missed his 4 goals and 1 assist in his last 50
Games in the 10 role
Click to expand...
Who is winning the balls pumped forward from deep?
Forget winning.
Who is even challenging for the balls pumped forward from deep?
Forget challenging.
Who is even in the nearish area to be considered close to being in an area where the ball is dropping into from being pumped deep?
Forget nearish.
Who even looks like they want to even watch the ball as it's pumped in from deep? Because Beto and Barry don't want to know. So we gift possession back and then have to work to try and get the ball back only to bluff with it once again.

We don't have any physicality to be getting on the end of clearances or long punts or emergency foot ins. We are a powder-puff side to easily brushed off the ball. Bigger heavier nastier sides will expose this over the rest of the season.
 

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